Depending on the end use of these materials, but also on the precise conditions in which they will be stored, transported and/or processed, it is often necessary to incorporate thereinto specific admixtures with a view to improving one or more particular characteristics thereof or to give them one or more particular characteristics, such as workability, storage stability, biodegradability, fluidizing, lubricating, bonding, film-forming, binding, suspending or dispersing capability, hydration or dryness capability and/or other characteristics connected with constraints of the technical, economic and/or regulatory kind.
As examples of admixtures for mineral binders, mention may be made of milling agents or grinding auxiliaries, plasticizers, water-reducing plasticizers, superplasticizers, setting and hardening accelerators, setting retarders, air entrainment agents, mass water-repellant agents and cure agents. These admixtures make it possible for example to modify the workability, the setting, the hardening, the strength and the durability of the mineral binder and/or certain other properties thereof.
Many water-reducing plasticizers or superplasticizers, whether or not of saccharidic nature, have already been used. As examples, mention may be made of:                molasses, obtained from sugar beet and sugar cane, which are inexpensive fermentable products but of limited effectiveness;        raw lignosulfonates, obtained from the paper industry, which are inexpensive but have the drawbacks of generating salts in the form of alkali metal chlorides, these generally being undesirable to users, and of causing the mortars or concretes to foam, thus reducing their 28-day strength;        sugars obtained from starch (glucose, maltose and starch hydrolysates containing them, such as maltodextrins and glucose syrups), which are good water-reducing plasticizers that generally do not contain alkali metal salts but are strong setting retarders;        oxidized sugars, such as alkali metal (especially sodium) gluconates and oxidized starch hydrolysates containing them, which are very good water-reducing plasticizers and setting retarders, and which also make it possible to improve the 28-day strength but are sources of alkali metal (in particular sodium) ions;        hydrogenated sugars, such as sorbitol, maltitol, and hydrogenated starch hydrolysates containing them, which are water-reducing plasticizers but are, however, much inferior retarders than oxidized sugars, while still being 28-day strength improvers;        sulfonated naphthalene-formaldehyde condensates and sulfonated melamine-formaldehyde condensates, which are very good plasticizers and weak setting retarders, but which however do not improve the 28-day strength and are not environmentally friendly; and        polyacrylates and styrene/maleic anhydride copolymers, which are superplasticizers and weak setting retarders but which have a high cost, are poorly biodegradable and, however, contribute little or no improvement to the 28-day strength.        
As may be seen, as regards the particular field of mineral binders, the industry has in particular sought water-reducing plasticizers or superplasticizers that are environmentally friendly and provide, at the same time, very good plasticity for a sufficient time, little setting delay and strength values that are consistent with the technical requirements.
However, the technico-economic benefit of such hypothetical products requires them to be, moreover:                a) able to be used for a maximum range of functionalities and/or for a maximum number of applicative fields in the general field of minerals materials, including under very varied pH or temperature conditions;        b) able to be readily used, but also stable, storable, transportable and miscible with other mineral material admixtures, and be so, both in the dry state and in the liquid state, including in liquid compositions having a high dry matter (DM);        c) suitable to the maximum as regards regulatory constraints, whether current or future ones, including in terms of human and environmental protection; and        d) capable of being obtained using relatively simple and inexpensive methods.        
There is therefore a need to have an admixture of natural origin, which is of low cost and is capable of being advantageously used 1) in the general field of mineral materials and in particular 2) in the particular field of mineral binders, particularly as a plasticizer or superplasticizer, whether by itself or mixed with other products.